The splendid successes of the Almoravid movement in North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula have somehow covered up its Saharan origin and far reaching repercussions on the Islamisation of the Stidan. Within forty years (Awdaghusht was taken in 446 / i054f. and Ghana c. 468 /1076) the veiled Sanhaja camel riders, the dreaded mulaththamUn of the Arabic sources, brought the western Sahara under their control and then disappeared from the West African map as abruptly as they had appeared. This short lived political success and its lasting impact on the modes of Islamic self articulation in the Stidan cannot be explained without the characteristic fusion of nomadic mobility and religious austerity that the movement was based upon. Wondrous stories are told about how Ibanhaja pilgrims were transformed by North African Maliki scholars into rigid believers and ideological leaders. 'Abd Allah ibn Yas'in, son of a Jaztila mother of Ghana, was one of them. He managed to unite a confed eration of!5anhaja tribes, among them partly Islamised and neophyte Gudala, Lamtuna, Jazitla and Masttfa, under a reformist message that was vividly depicted in the following description of his newly founded headquarters at Aratnanna: all dwellings of the ribat (hence 'al Murabithn’) were to be of equal height; lying, drinking and music were forbidden; neglect of prayer and improper behaviour were punished with the whip and the bride price was made affordable for everybody. Religious and social reform went hand in hand. Its legal reference was the Miliki school of law; its operational field was West Africa. The Almoravid movement set off what ended ultimately in the com plete orientation of the Sridiin towards the Miliki rite. Later reported 'con versions' to Islam, in reference to the people of Gao around 47i/i078f., may simply refer to conversion from Ibaciism to Milikism.
'Abd Allah himself set the example for another central notion in West African Islam. He withdrew to the desert, refrained from consuming meals of legally doubtful origin, and wore the sUf, the woollen garment of the Sufis.
Thus the figure of 'al Murabit’ entered the scene. The maraboutism of both medieval and modern Islam in Africa tells the story of the thorough Africanisation with a French accent of this figure.
Even when the short political adventure of the Almoravids ended, their influence continued to work. Their Sahaja followers, Judala in the south, Mastifa in the east, entered regions that had hitherto come into contact with Islam only superficially, or not at all. South of the Senegal river, the king of Takrur together with his people, the sedentary Tukulor and the adjacent nomadic pastoralist Fulbe, converted to Islam. So did the king ofMalal, who was fascinated by the magical powers of a passing Muslim scholar (mallam), although his Mandingo speaking common subjects were not. Both kingdoms formed part of Ghana which did not recover from the Almoravid attack. All that can be gathered from the hearsay stories collected over the next two centuries and combined with the earlier reports in the Arabic sources points to a slow expansion of the Muslim faith among the Fulbe, Malinke, Bambara and Dyula populations in the regions between the rivers of Senegal, Volta and Upper Niger. Islam was thus imported into the areas from where the much coveted gold and cola nuts were exported. The rise of the empire of Mali in the late seventh/thirteenth century must be seen in the light of this steadily expanding system of economic and social relations between the savannah and forest regions in the south of Mali, and the growing trading centres of Walata, Timbuktu, Gao, Tadmakkat and Takadda along the southern fringe of the Sahara. To the west ofTimbuktu were the Sanhaja tribes of Madaasa and Masuafa, and to the east the Tuareg Berbers who controlled the salt mining and organised the profitable exchange of goods with their Suadaanic counterparts. Trade and religion intermingled. Profit depended on legd security, communication and the mutual acceptance of cultural norms. The prosperity of the empire of Mali rested on the integration of Islamic norms and the consequent opening up to the wider Islamic world.
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